Margarita Cano was born in Havana, Cuba and arrived in the United States in 1962. She first worked at the Miami-Dade Public Library as a Community Relations and Art Services Coordinator. In 1993, she started painting full time and creating one-of-a-kind artist books. Cano's work is reminiscent of the illuminated manuscripts of the High Middle Ages. She transforms memory into magic. Biblical and art historical allusions monumentalize the daily grievances of contemporary life in Cuba. Distant memory and loss have a way of transforming even the prosaic into a magical recollection. In Cano's work, the idealized landscapes of her beloved island serve as setting for the interaction of the sacred and the mundane. Throughout her work, the tension between surface ornamentation and three-dimensionality is enhanced by the rich jewel-like finish that belies the presence of the brush. This tension strengthens the narrative content of the work. It is in the storytelling that Cano invites the viewer to partake of her memory and her magic.